Image © 1997 by Universal City Studios, Inc.

Field of Dreams, released in 1989, is a movie that has become a touchstone for baseball and movie fans around the world. It's the inspiring story of Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner), and how he learns that baseball can bring people together, no matter how far apart they seem.

Although the film is a fantasy, the baseball field situated in the cornfields of Iowa is in fact very real, and still exists today.

The former film set, now a working ballpark, sits amidst miles of corn fields and farmland in Dyersville, Iowa, and has become the most popular tourist attraction in the state! It has drawn 750,000 tourists since the movie premiered. They come to "have a catch," re-live the film, and re-live their youth.

But underneath the cheerful banners, behind the laughing tourists frolicking on the field, a dark, gloomy secret exists. Because all the talk of love and empathy is a lie.

You see, while the film preaches the idea that baseball brings people together, the film's baseball field set has, in reality, torn two neighboring Iowa farms completely apart.

FIELD OF DREAMS WEB LINKS Baseballparks.com FOD Movie Site Left & Center FOD

The field is stretched across two farms. So while baseball (and lots of film money) originally brought these friendly neighbors together, it also spawned two rival tourist shops, and has made the families enemies.

Baseball has driven them apart.

THE VOICE

The Voice: "Ease their pain."

One night, while sitting at our computers reading the latest police blotter detailing the crimes of steroid-crazed pro athletes, we at SportsHollywood heard a tiny voice calling to us over the whining and buzzing of our overheated computers. The voice was beckoning us on a journey—a mission. Anything beats doing research for the web site, so we enthusiastically followed the voice's instructions.

The voice directed us to the web sites of two tiny tourist attractions in Iowa. Or more two the point, one tiny tourist attraction with two warring owners.

Then we saw a vision of the expansive field and the two opposing tourist stands, each determined to ignore the other.

We knew what the voice was asking us to do. Some would call us crazy for what we were about to try, but we heard the call, and our destiny was clear.

The Voice: "Go the distance."

The voice beckoned us to Iowa. And we said we would come. SportsHollywood would find a way to bring these neighbors back together.

We would take the long journey to fulfill a simple dream—to make a pilgrimage to that legendary baseball diamond, in order to "ease their pain."

After much consideration, after much plotting and the help of the filmmakers, we devised a simple plan. One that we knew had to work. We had to believe in ourselves, like Ray. More importantly, we had to believe in the dream.

Read on to see if we succeeded, or go here if you can't wait to view the final chapter...

	CHAPTER ONE: Filming begins on a farm in Iowa, but soon the set crosses onto the neighbor's yard, and the "Field of Dreams" is owned by two different farmers.
	CHAPTER TWO: "If you build it, they will come." And they did! 750,000 of them! But which side of the field should they be on? Here's the back story on the two rival sides of the Field of Dreams.
	CHAPTER THREE: We devise strategies to help baseball bring the two rival tourist shops together. (Along with some really twisted schemes.)
	CHAPTER FOUR: SportsHollywood rallies the creators of the film join us in our quest to unite the rival souvenir shops and to "ease their pain."
	CHAPTER FIVE: We make our final pitch. Can SportsHollywood (and baseball) bring the two sides together again? What finally happened, and who went to jail.
	BUY THE MOVIE: Buy the DVD or video. (The DVD contains a documentary about the field.)